


There's Only One Right Answer

by ZaccRiseC3P



Series: Ozqrow Week 2020 [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, College AU, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Ozqrow Week, Ozqrow Week 2020, Pining, Role Reversal AU, cloqwork, ozqrow - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27407299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaccRiseC3P/pseuds/ZaccRiseC3P
Summary: Ozqrow Week Day 5: Role ReversalQrow isn't sure how to react when his math professor asks him to tutor a fellow student- just his luck, it happens to be the one kid he's had a crush on all semester.(In short, a Cloqwork College AU one-shot!)
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Ozpin
Series: Ozqrow Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995820
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	There's Only One Right Answer

**Author's Note:**

> I stepped out of my comfort zone with this one as I don't usually write these sorts of AUs, but I think it came out well! I hope you enjoy. All feedback is appreciated! XD

_Could this class go any slower?_

Qrow found himself thinking this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between the hours of 1pm and 2pm. The entry level math course he was forced to take as a prerequisite left his mind numb, usually resulting in mindless scribbles and doodles filling the sides of his notebook. Unfortunately, he had to take the class before being allowed to move on to the more advanced engineering classes he planned on taking.

_What a waste of time._

Despite the useless nature of the class, he was never late, he handed everything in on time, and he aced every test they had so far. The class served more as a fifty minute study hall for him every other day.

Every class was the same. Qrow would listen when Professor Polendina started class by explaining any important due dates that were coming up. As soon as the update was finished and the lesson started, Qrow would zone out, either by doodling, staring at his phone, or getting a head start on the week's assignments. On this particular day, he opted for being productive.

The engineering student breezed through the first three problems without looking up from his notebook. He had no idea what was going on around him until the unexpected squeak of the classroom door opening caught his attention. Qrow instinctively turned around, curious who was sneaking into class almost ten minutes late. It was that Ozpin kid again. 

_Does he ever show up on time?_

The professor gave Oz a suspicious glance, but he didn’t say anything, continuing the lesson as if nothing changed. Qrow watched as Ozpin scanned the room. Suddenly, the student’s eyes settled on the seat next to him.

 _Shit, he’s coming over here,_ Qrow thought, his eyes going wide with the realization. The teenager quickly turned his attention back to his work, hoping to go unnoticed by the kid who just arrived.

Keeping his head down, Qrow tried to focus on the problem in front of him. Emphasis on tried. Instead of working on math, Qrow watched as Ozpin sat down next to him and plopped his backpack on the desk. The boy pulled out a notebook and a pencil, throwing them on the table next to his bag. As he shifted his bag from the desk to the floor, he shot Qrow an acknowledging nod as if to say “hey.” Qrow felt his cheeks burning immediately. Had he really been staring at the kid that whole time? 

In his panicked state, the engineering major forgot to nod back. Instead, again, he averted his gaze, staring at the same problem he wrote in his notebook three minutes ago but hadn't touched.

No matter how hard he tried, Qrow’s eyes kept shifting to the student next to him. Ozpin was wearing a solid black t-shirt, ripped jeans, an emerald green pendant around his neck, and a skin-tight solid black bracelet on his left wrist. His style was simple, yet charming. Qrow’s heart jumped into his throat at the mere thought of starting up a casual conversation with the guy.

 _He’s just some kid in a gen ed math class, it should_ not _be this hard to talk to him._

Qrow could count on one hand the number of times he’s actually talked to Ozpin, and he was pretty sure it would only take two hands to count the number of words each conversation lasted. Usually when someone sat next to him in a class Qrow could just ignore them- zone them out like everyone else, keep his head down, and get his work done. However, when it was Ozpin, for some reason, the only thought on his mind was, “How do I get this kid to talk to me?” He’d never felt that way about anyone before. To make matters worse, Qrow was convinced that Ozpin only saw him as “that nerdy kid to talk to when he needed to know what he missed.” He wasn’t even sure if his classmate knew his name.

“Did I miss anything important?”

Qrow kept his head down, only vaguely aware that the new arrival sitting next to him had spoken at all.

“Qrow, isn’t it?” Ozpin checked.

Qrow popped his head up at the sound of his name.

_I guess he does know…_

“What? Uh, yeah, what’s up?”

With a small laugh, Ozpin rephrased his question. “I was just wondering if I missed any announcements.”

“Oh, yeah, right, um…” Qrow flipped back a page in his notebook to check. “We have a homework assignment due Wednesday and… a test on Friday.”

“Friday?” Oz clarified.

“Yeah, on chapters five and six.”

“Ok…” the student said slowly, jotting down the dates for himself. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Qrow sighed.

Qrow impatiently tapped the desk as he looked up at the board. Professor Polendina was writing out a practice problem. 

“I want you to try to solve this one on your own,” he announced.

No thanks, Qrow thought. He was about to turn his attention back to the homework in front of him, but his eyes got caught on the student next to him again. A mistake on Ozpin’s work caused Qrow to blurt out, “No, that’s-”

Cut off by his own realization. _Shit, now he knows I was staring at him._

“What’s wrong?” Oz politely asked.

The engineering major gestured towards Oz’s notebook. “That’s… not right.”

“What’s not right?”

“The problem you’re working on, it- uh- nevermind.”

Qrow quickly turned away and propped his head up with his hand. 

_Idiot,_ he chastised himself. _He’s gonna think you’re an asshole for correcting him. Just leave it._

An awkward tension hung in the air as Oz’s look lingered. His gaze kept shifting from his notebook to Qrow. The gears in his head were turning.

“How would you go about it, then?” Oz hesitated, an innocent smile accompanying his question.

The charm with which he delivered such a simple question almost left Qrow frozen. The teenager managed to press forward, stuttering, “Well I- Here, I can show you…”

“By all means.”

Oz offered his pencil which Qrow promptly plucked from his grasp. Qrow awkwardly leaned over, stretching across the desk instead of simply moving his chair closer. After a moment of calculating and recording his work, Qrow sat back and pointed with the writing utensil, “See,” he said, “you made your mistake here. It would have thrown the rest of your calculations off even if you did it right.”

Oz leaned forward to see what Qrow was referring to. Qrow cursed at himself when he felt a thumping in his chest. Why did it have to happen every time Ozpin got close? If only it would _stop._

“Ah, I see it now,” Oz hummed. “A fatal error that would have been.” Oz turned to face his classmate before adding, “Thank you for catching it.”

Qrow’s throat closed up at the expression of gratitude, the golden-brown irises staring at him enough to take his breath away. The boy had to clear his throat to shake himself out of his stupor. “Oh, yeah, anytime. Uh, Here you go,” he finally said, handing Oz his pencil back. Qrow reclined in his seat and resumed staring blankly at the problem on the page in front of him.

‘Anytime’? Really? Am I trying to sound like a fucking know-it-all?

The rest of class played out as it always did. Professor Polendina taught a lesson Qrow already knew, and even though he knew every answer, the advanced student didn’t dare raise his hand. In fact, he avoided talking to anyone for the rest of the class period- including and especially Ozpin. One awkward, bungled interaction was enough for the day. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to be able to avoid Ozpin forever.

“Alright, that’s enough for today,” Professor Polendina announced. “I’ll let you go a couple minutes early. Remember to finish the homework by Wednesday, everyone.”

A clamor of “thank you, professor” and “have a good day” rose from the class as everyone packed up their books. Despite his best efforts to shove his books in his bag and skirt out of the room unnoticed, Qrow stopped when he heard an authoritative voice ask, “Qrow, can I ask a favor of you?”

The student looked up to see his professor sitting in a wheelchair across the desk from him. “Uh, what kind of favor?” Qrow wondered slowly.

“I need you to tutor another student of mine,” Professor Polendina explained. “He’s been struggling to keep up and, well, you are the best and brightest.”

“I’m not sure I’d be much of a tutor…”

“Nonsense! You already understand the concepts, you’re simply taking what you know and explaining it to someone else. Please, I would really appreciate it.”

“...Who’s the student?”

“I believe he’s referring to me,” Ozpin chimed in sheepishly.

“You?” Qrow asked, unable to control the word from popping out.

“Does that surprise you?”

Qrow fumbled, “No, it doesn't- wait- that’s not what I meant, I…”

“That's alright, I know what you mean.”

“Yeah…”

“So?” the professor prompted one more time. “What do you say?"

“S-sure, why not?” the engineering student conceded. As soon as he caught a glimpse of the appreciative smile on Ozpin’s face his cheeks started burning again. He hoped the color in his cheeks wasn’t as obvious as it felt.

“Excellent!” the math teacher exclaimed. “That's quite a relief, thank you, Qrow. I will see you two next class.”

Professor Polendina quickly excused himself and rolled out of the room following the stream of exiting students, leaving the two alone.

“So, uh, when do you want to meet up?” Qrow asked.

Immediately, Oz shrugged, “I have some time now.”

“Oh, now… like right now?”

“There's no time like the present.”

“Yeah, sure, I guess that works.”

“After you,” Oz smiled, gesturing towards the open door behind them. The pair exited the classroom and headed for the campus library walking side by side.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes later, the pair was sitting at a table in the library. As Qrow got out his notebook and laptop Oz couldn’t help but notice that Qrow didn’t exactly look the “part” of a straight A student. The new math tutor was wearing black jeans, a maroon red t-shirt, and a light grey hoodie that looked one size too big for him. Despite his disheveled outward appearance, he seemed to be an efficient student. All he needed was one, well organized notebook, a sharpened pencil, and a laptop. Oz was intrigued. It appeared that his classmate was much more than meets the eye. As he grabbed his own notebook and pencil, the history major couldn’t stop himself from prying a bit. “Based on your less than enthusiastic response to being a tutor I assume you’re not studying to be a teacher?”

“Is it that obvious?” Qrow grunted.

“A little.”

“Yeah, no. That’s just about the last thing I’d be looking to do.”

“So what are you studying to do?”

“Mechanical engineering. That’s the goal, anyway,” the student shrugged.

“Really? And what is a mechanical engineer doing in such a primitive math course?”

“Being bored out of his mind at the moment,” Qrow laughed without humor. “I have to take this course before I can move on to the more advanced stuff.”

“Well, I’m certainly grateful for the prerequisite right now.”

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?”

Oz smiled, “Because it means we get to work together this semester.” 

The sudden pink color of Qrow’s cheeks did not escape Oz’s eye. As Qrow averted his gaze, Oz stole a private smile, satisfied that his comment received such a reaction.  
Qrow cleared his throat and attempted to change the subject. “So, uh, if math isn’t your thing I assume you’re studying something less… technical.”

“Your assumption would be correct. Let’s just say the only math I really need to worry about is figuring out how long ago certain events occurred.”

“A history buff, huh?”

“If that’s what you wish to call it.”

“Never cared for history much. Never seemed to make sense to dwell on the past.”

“I think you’re confusing ‘dwelling’ on the past for ‘learning’ from it.”

“Am I?”

“It’s a common interpretation. I find it fascinating how certain scholars takeaway different lessons from the same historical events.”

“That’s why I stick to numbers. There’s always only one right answer.”

“Sure, but history isn’t the only area in which one may find flexible answers to important questions. For instance, depending on how one feels, there could be more than one right answer to me asking someone out to dinner.”

“You’re wrong about that one,” Qrow countered quickly. “I think there would only be one right answer to that question, too.”

“Oh really?” Oz raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

“The _right_ answer would be ‘yes.’”

“Then it’s a date.”

Qrow blinked, “Wait what?”

“Well, I was going to ask you that question eventually regardless, so if the right answer is ‘yes’ then logic dictates that we will go to dinner together at some point.”

The future engineer was stunned into silence.

“Is there a flaw in my reasoning?” Oz wondered.

“I- I guess not,” Qrow laughed. “At least, not this time.”

“Perhaps I deserved that one. Does tonight at seven work for you?”

“It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **Reminder** : The best way to see what else I have planned for fics is to follow me on Tumblr [@zacs-of-rwby](https://zacs-of-rwby.tumblr.com)! Thank you again for taking the time to read this. All feedback is appreciated! Stay safe, everyone XD


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